Board recommends building $25-million downtown Catholic Central high school

If the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board can secure $25 million from the Ontario government, a new high school will be built in the city’s core to replace the aging and cramped Catholic Central high school, the board administration said Tuesday.

But if funding is denied by the education ministry, the school’s student body will be divided among three different high schools across the city, according to a central Windsor accommodation review report released by the board.

Either way, the Catholic Central building — originally built in 1929 as Guppy public elementary school — will be shuttered in June 2016.

The cramped school can simply no longer provide the same amenities, access to technology and programming as provided at other Catholic high schools, according to the board report.

Board chairperson Barb Holland indicated the board has already presented a “solid business case” to the ministry on why the high school should be replaced.

“It’s incredibly old and impossible to upgrade the infrastructure for technical equipment comparable to what kids are doing at other schools,” she said. “Working closely with the ministry to get those funds — that’s our first choice.”

The board did submit funding requests the past two years for a new Catholic Central high school, said Mario Iatonna, the board’s executive superintendent of corporate services.

“We submitted it as our number one priority, but both last year and this year they have declined to fund the project,” he said.

He believes the ministry first wants to see the board’s accommodation review process completed — which will happen by the end of May.

The preferred option is to build a new high school on the downtown Windsor Arena and Water World properties — both being offered for $1 by the city. The funding request covers a three-storey high school, renovation of the municipal pool structure into a double gymnasium, plus a new playing field, Iatonna said.

The arena would be demolished and cleared away under the plan. Glengarry Park would be kept as green space, while school parking would be across the street on McDougall Avenue on the municipal lot being offered by the city.

Iatonna said 70 per cent of the students would be within walking distance of that site and he suggested partnerships could be created with downtown campuses of St. Clair College and the University of Windsor.

The school would be built to accommodate 876 students with room left for additions in the future should enrolment increase, he said. The current enrolment is 776 students.

There was a private sector proposal involving a 3.4-acre commercial property — home to Vitale Produce — which was offered for sale to the board for $1.15 million to create a nine-acre parcel when combined with Wigle Park.

But Iatonna indicated Tuesday the park remains off limits.

“We have had discussion with the mayor’s office and was told it was unavailable, so any option that includes Wigle Park is not viable,” he said. “The city has offered to donate the Windsor Arena site, that’s a viable option as far as we’re concerned.”

The board will also be faced with difficult school accommodation decisions in Riverside and Tecumseh, where possible school closures and boundary issues must be addressed before the end of May.

“We take it very seriously,” Holland said. “We are fortunate to have a large amount of data in front of us. It’s not just reports from committees and the director, but we also have minutes from the meetings on what the public said so that we really get a flavour of what the community wants.

“We know parents really love their schools, but it’s difficult because you have to make decisions as trustees which may not be popular . . . We’d much rather put money into programming rather than fund empty seats.”

The next step is for the Catholic board to stage accommodation review meetings three nights in a row starting April 14 — one each for the city’s core, Riverside and Tecumseh — to discuss administration’s final recommendations and get feedback.

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